{"id":1641,"date":"2018-11-03T18:03:37","date_gmt":"2018-11-04T00:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/?p=1641"},"modified":"2024-04-22T02:46:13","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T02:46:13","slug":"why-does-anyone-buy-jell-o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/2018\/11\/03\/why-does-anyone-buy-jell-o\/","title":{"rendered":"Why does anyone buy Jell-O?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

There’s something in my Jell-O.<\/p><\/div>\n

We all grew up with Jell-O<\/a>. We’ve heard the stupid jingle. I bet you’re singing it now. But what is the point of Jell-O? It’s flavored sugar and doesn’t provide any nutrients, yet it sells millions of boxes a year.<\/p>\n

After deciding the kitchen cabinets needed to be cleaned out, I found eight boxes of Jell-O<\/a> and two boxes of Jell-O instant pudding. Most of them had expired in 2011. A few had expired in 2010. I began to wonder why I even had such things in my house if I was never going to use them.<\/p>\n

Most of our cabinets are filled with nutritious things, such as unsalted cashews, unsalted pistachios, crackers to go with cheese, protein bars, canned vegetables, and Mounds or Snickers bars.<\/p>\n

Neither Paul nor I remember purchasing the famous little boxes. I asked on Facebook whether I should toss the entire lot out or not. The consensus on the pudding, however, was to toss it as quickly as possible. One friend said she had just made a box of Jell-O<\/a> that was older than the ones in my possession. I figured if she wasn’t dead, mine wouldn’t kill me either.<\/p>\n

I boiled water on my stove that is so old only one burner works. You could hear the crackling of the aluminum teapot as it heated over the rusting coil.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I looked at the stack of Jell-O<\/a> boxes. I had three strawberry-flavored boxes. I decided to make them all at once. I followed the directions on the box of one cup of boiling water and one cup of cold water per box.<\/p>\n

I pulled out a serving spoon and stirred until everything was dissolved. My cat, Londo, ran into the kitchen, did a shoving-turn move on my foot and raced back out. Three long claw marks adorn the top of my left foot now, but I did not stop stirring.<\/p>\n

The box said to wait four hours for the Jell-O to settle. So I did. I waited. And waited. And waited.<\/p>\n

Paul made me french fries for lunch. I typed up fourteen poems I’ve written. They will be posted over the next several weeks. Then, I did some research on Jell-O.<\/p>\n

\u201cCBS This Morning\u201d covered a story about Jell-O on November 27, 2011. According to the story, \u201cApproximately 420 million boxes of Jell-O gelatin are sold in the United States each year and over a billion Jell-O cups.\u201d I guess my expired boxes were part of that 420 million.<\/p>\n